But this is the core of what I think is wrong with the Microsoft haters!
You don't like the tactics? Well, are they illegal? Doesn't seem so to me. Or the US government. The tactics displease you. Boo-frickin-Hoo! France displeases me. But it's not going anywhere.
You don't like the quality of its products? Don't buy the products! Businesses that have poor quality go out of business. Microsoft isn't going out of business. The company quite obviously provides something of benefit to its customers. Standardization is not a bad thing. I remember the alternative.
I believe that corporations should have free rein to do anything they want within the letter of the law. In general, I think we have too many laws that restrict economic success. But that's a side point. Given the laws today, I think Microsoft should do anything it can, and if it goes too far, then it will get sued and it can take take its lumps. I'm a capitalist. If you want more laws on the books to limit Microsoft, go lobby for more laws.
This bashing of corporations which are trying to generate profits and trying to employ greater numbers of Americans is something I expect from Gore supporters.
The logical segue of a MONOPOLY is to destroy the competition using tactics that if not illegal, are highly questionable.
You missed out completely on what the free market really is and need to reread your Adam Smith: the free market exists because the exchange of INFORMATION relating to value, allowing a purchaser to derive more value from something than the seller (who presumably has a warehouse full of something which is less useful to him than, say, capital which he can invest in new equipment).
What I am doing with this post is EXACTLY THAT, allowing those who might choose Microsoft products in on addition information which THEY may interpret as ADDING TO or SUBTRACTING FROM the value they might place on a Microsoft product. Needless to say, I would contend that since Microsoft tends to stiff-arm older versions of things for strictly marketing reasons, and to re-label the same old crap, these actions would make me question the wisdom of purchasing Microsoft products that my company's future and my job might depend on, but hey, that is just MY ethics clouding my worldview.
If you try to build a market on strictly unethical practices (such as lying, stealing or cheating) then the law of unintended consequences takes over.
You are entitled to be a fan of unbridled capitalism, I am a fan of fair play.
The beginning of the end is when ethics is forced to take a back seat to the law, particularly law that has become corrupted...